consumer perception towards various mobile service providers

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IJCRT2103383 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 3126

CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS

VARIOUS MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDERS

Dr. Somabhusana Janakiballav Mishra

Assistant Professor, Amity Global Business School, Bhubaneswar

Debasish Rout


Dr. Ashamayee Mishra


Mr. Biswajeet Sahu

Student, BBA IV, Amity Global Business School, Bhubaneswar

ABSTRACT

Connectivity with everyone is a crucial element in today’s cyber world and mobile service is one among

them. In India after globalization the telecom sector was deregulated and today it is one of the fastest

growing industries because of stiff competition among different service providers. The telecom service

providers are adopting different strategies to woo the customers, but they must customize before designing

any service or offer. In this research paper, attempts have been made to find out the factors that customers

emphasize more while selecting the service provider. Network quality, customer service, pricing strategies

is the major factors. The research was conducted through online with help Google Forms. Data was

collected from 112 respondents and further calculated by using techniques such as chi-square, column

graphs and bar graphs. It has been found that consumers prefer prepaid plans instead of post-paid plans and

all most every customer treat their mobile phone as a necessity. They generally use their mobile phone for

their personal use and for both incoming and outgoing calls as well as internet. The study reveals that JIO is

the most preferred mobile phone service providers among consumers followed by Airtel and VI. Most of the

respondents replied that they are satisfied with the service provided by their mobile service provider. From

the analysis, we can conclude that there is no significant association between gender and age with type of

plans customers choose. There is a significant association between gender and age with how long the

respondents are availing the service of the mobile service provider and also there is a significant association

between gender and how much expenditure customers made per month.

Keywords: Network quality, customer service, pricing strategies, Mobile service provider, consumer

perception

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INTRODUCTION

Mobile Services is one of the fast-moving industries in India. With the economy opening up there is cut-

throat competition in this sector. The widespread use of mobile phone has increased over the past decade to

the point of becoming an essential part of business, commerce, and society.

Most important mobile phones give access to the world anytime, anywhere and have come to provide great

assistance to users. Mobile phones are also economically priced to be affordable by the majority.

The rise in growth and development of information technology and mobile devices has made the Indian

mobile phone service markets more and more competitive. It is assumed by all mobile service providers that

value added services increases the customer loyalty. But does value added services fulfilling all the

customer needs and it is the only factor that influences the loyalty of the customers. Being a buyer’s market,

the mobile companies must go an extra mile by not limiting themselves to only giving range of offers.

Because today’s customers are very smart, and they easily understand the techniques of luring them.

Customers are more concerned about the value addition and defect free processes. Especially in the current

scenario in the corona outbreak period where they were not able go outside, internet and uninterrupted

connectivity with everyone was very crucial. Online academic classes in schools, colleges, universities,

work from home for employees, OTT applications, online from the e-commerce sites are some of the

frequently done activities of people in the lockdown period. Now in this case those service providers who

have given uninterrupted and non-complaining services to people are the most sought after by customers. In

addition to the above some of the value added things which customers remember are mobile number

portability, voice message, MMS,SMS, unbreakable signals, easy recharging, video calling etc.

Customer perception is the process to assess how customers perceive services, how they assess, whether

they have experienced quality service and whether they are satisfied or not. Customer perception is directly

related to customer expectation. Due to the dynamic nature of expectation perception of any person may

also shift over time, person, place or culture.

Customers perceive services in terms of the quality of the service and how satisfied they are overall with

their experiences. The study will throw light on the customer satisfaction towards different services

provided by different service providers.

LITERATURE REVIEW

DeoskarAruna (2009), in her study “A study of mobile services from customer’s perspective”, shows the

spectacular revolution in information technology happened in India which boosted telecom sector. The main

objective is to study the impact of customer service on customer satisfaction and to associate various factors

like data coverage, billing facilities with it. The findings gathered by testing data using SPSS states that all

the sub parameters like billing service and data coverage has a significant impact on the customer

satisfaction influencing customer perception.

Menon (2014) in the study entitled “Customer perception towards A public Sector Telecom Company

(BSNL) in Mobile services” focuses on consumer perception about government Indian company BSNL

using primary research data. The variables takes here are age groups, Income of the family, qualification,

opinions and also studied their correlation in between these factors. The correlation significance between

these factors is 0.05 according to analysis.

Kalyani Pawan (2015) in her research study “An Empirical Study on Reliance JIO Effect, Competitor’s

Reaction and Customer Perception on the JIO’S Pre- Launch Offer” “states the future effects that will be

observed after the launch of JIO. The study includes overall scenario of telecom sector, its history and its

growth projected. The paper shows the future scope in this sector and different type strategies used by

various companies.




Sudheesh et al. (2015) in their study paper “A comparative study on customer satisfaction towards Airtel &

Vodafone with reference to Avadi, Chennai” reviews the consumer perception about the two giants in

Indian telecom industry; Vodafone and Airtel in city Chennai. The consumers expect different services from

networks; this study highlights those services and the importance of the same.

Sugunathi Meena and Shanthi R. (2017) in their research paper conducted a study based on customer

opinions about service they are using with parameters responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance and

tangibility. The factors which matters most are on time and right service when customer expects it.

Debarun Chakraborty (2013), in his research found out that preference of customers are more inclined

towards those service providers who has a brand of his own and extends un-paralleled services with respect

to wide network coverage, unbreakable signal and connectivity.

Kavitha et al (2013), in their article titled “A study on Customer satisfaction towards Vodafone sim card

special reference in Madurai city” determined the consumer satisfaction on Vodafone service providers’

services in Madurai district and to find out the consumers mentality towards using the services.

Lehtinen&Lehtinen (1991) suggested in their research that process and output are complementary to each

other as far as quality-of-service provider is concerned. Customers asses the quality from the tangible aspect

of the service process without any significant errors.

Wang and Lo (2002)concluded in their findings that of all the factors of influencing the customers, network

quality and after sales service of these providers are the deciding factors of survivability.

Ranaweera and Neely (2003) studied and searched that retention of customers is very much dependent on

their perception towards price, service, quality of not only mobile service providers but also in fixed line

telephone services.

Gopica (2015) in her research paper “Growth and development of telecom sectors in India-an overview” the

paper gives an idea about telecom origin and also about the huge evolution that has taken place in this

sector. The paper in view of researcher gives an overview about the various authorities like Telecom

Regulatory Authority of India also the different networks which are present in this industry.

Dr.K. Moorthy1, K.Selvaraju2, K.Ayiswarya3 (17th Jan 2017)inferred in their research that internet has

changed the day to day processes of people as far as their style, nature, socializing aspect, sharing of

information, flow of ideas are concerned.In order to make them satisfy the service providers have to cover

extra mile to satisfy their needs and wants on their terms.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research study was based on a survey made online. A structured questionnaire was used for data

collection. An online survey on google forms was designed to determine the consumer perception towards

various mobile service providers in Bhubaneswar. 112 respondents from various localities of

Bhubaneswar were selected as sample. Data is analyzed by simple percentage analysis, cross tabulations,

chi-square and charts using Excel.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To find out customers satisfaction towards various mobile service providers.

To study the association of demographics with the type of plan consumer choose and loyalty

To study the factors affecting the buying decision of consumers.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

On the basis of data collected from 112 respondents from the city of Bhubaneswar the following analysis

has been made and we have found that out of 112 respondents 53 belong to 18-20 age group, 50 belong to

21-23 and 9 only belong to 24-30. So mostly the study is made on the youths of the city. Table -1 represents

the number of respondents belong to different age groups and the same is also represented in chart-1.




Table – 1 – Age of respondents

AGE NO OF RESPONDENTS

18-20 53

21-23 50

24-30 9

Chart – 1 – Age of respondents

It has been found that out of 112 respondents 27 are female and 85 are male. Table -2 below is depicting

that. It is also clearly seen from the chart-2 that majority of the respondents are male.

Table – 2 – Gender of respondents

GENDER NO OF RESPONDENTS

FEMALE 27

MALE 85

Chart – 2 – Gender of respondents

It has been found that (Table – 3) out of 112 respondents 44 are B.Tech followed by 15 BBA. The number

of respondents belonging to different educational background can be clearly seen from Chart-3.

53 50

9

18-20 21-23 24-30

Age of Respondents

27

85

FEMALE MALE

Gender




Table – 3– Educational qualification of respondents

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION

NO OF RESPONDENTS

12TH COMPLETED 12

B.TECH 44

BBA 15

B.SC 9

B.COM 11

DIPLOMA 4

MBA 12

B. PHARMA 3

M.COM 2

Chart – 3– Educational qualification of respondents

Table -4 shows number of respondents according to their type of mobile connection. The maximum

respondents are prepaid users in comparison to Post-paid users. Chart-4 shows that majority of the users are

prepaid users.

Table – 4–Type of mobile connection

TYPE OF MOBILE CONNECTION NO OF RESPONDENTS

POSTPAID 11

PREPAID 101

12

44

15

9 11 412

3 205

101520253035404550

Education




Chart – 4–Type of mobile connection

Table -5 depicts the division of the respondents as per their current user of service provider. The maximum

respondents belong to JIO followed by AIRTEL. Chart- 5 shows the numbers of respondents belong to

different service providers.

Table – 5–Type of mobile service providers

TYPES OF MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDERS

NO OF RESPONDENTS

AIRTEL 37

JIO 63

VI 8

BSNL 2

OTHERS 2

Chart – 5–Type of mobile service providers

11

101

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

POSTPAID

PREPAID

Type of mobile connection

37

63

8

2

2

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

AIRTEL

JIO

VI

BSNL

OTHERS

Mobile service providers




It has been found that (Table – 6) out of 112 respondents 94 are satisfied with the service provided by the

present mobile service provider they belong to. Chart – 6 represents the same. It can be seen that 18

respondents are dissatisfied with the service provided by their current mobile service provider.

Table –6–Number of customers satisfied with the service

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

NO OF RESPONDENTS

YES 94

NO 18

Chart –6–Number of customers satisfied with the service

Table- 7 is a cross table that shows the observed value of chi square test which is conducted to know the

association between gender and type of plans they choose (Monthly or quarterly). Respondents are

categories on the basis of their chosen plans. There are two types of plans monthly, quarterly.

H01: There is no significant association between gender and type of plans customers choose.

Table – 7–Cross table for gender and type of plans

Count of PLAN Column Labels

Row Labels Monthly plan Quarterly plan

Grand Total

Female 5 22 27

Male 30 55 85

Grand Total 35 77 112

Table- 8 shows the expected values and the p value of chi square test which are conducted to know the

association between gender and type of plans they choose (Monthly or quarterly). The p value here is 0.1

which is greater than 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted here. So we can conclude that there is no

significant association between gender and type of plans customers choose.

94

180

20

40

60

80

100

YES NO

Satisfaction




Table –8–Chi-square test with p value for gender and type of plans

Count of PLAN Column Labels


Grand Total

Female 8.4375 18.5625 27

Male 26.5625 58.4375 85

p value 0.101354774

H02: There is no significant association between age and type of plans customers choose.

The following cross Table-9 shows the observed value of chi square test which is conducted to know the

association between age and plans customers choose. Respondents are categories on the basis of their

chosen plans. Also respondents are categorised on the basis of age i.e. 18-20, 21-23 and 24-30.

Table – 9–Cross table for age and type of plans

Count Plan Column Labels

Row Labels Monthly plan Quarterly plan Total

18-20 30 23 53

21-23 18 32 50

24-30 5 4 9

Total 53 59 112


association between age and type of plans they choose (Monthly or quarterly). The p value here is 0.09

which is greater than 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted here. So we can conclude that there is no

significant association between age and type of plans customers choose.

Table –10–Chi-square test with p value for age and type of plans

Count Plan Column Labels


18-20 25.08035714 27.91964286

21-23 23.66071429 26.33928571

24-30 4.258928571 4.741071429

p value 0.097903359

H03: There is no significant association between gender and how long the respondents are availing the

service of the mobile service provider.




Table-11 depicts the observed value of chi square test which is conducted to know the association between

gender and how long the respondents are availing the service of the mobile service provider. We have

categorised the data into < 2years, 2—4 years and > 4years.

Table –11–Cross table for gender and how long the respondents are availing the service of the mobile

service provider

For how long you are availing with the services of your present service provider?

Column Labels

Row Labels Less than 2 years

2-4 Years

More than 4 years

Grand Total

Female 7 12 8 27

Male 52 26 7 85

Grand Total 59 38 15 112


association between genders and how long the respondents are availing the service of the mobile service

provider. The p value here is 0.005 which is less than 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. So we can

conclude that there is a significant association between gender and how long the respondents are availing

the service of the mobile service provider.

Table –12–Chi-square test with p value for gender and how long the respondents are availing the

service of the mobile service provider


Column Labels

Row Labels Less than 2 years 2-4 Years

More than 4 years

Female 14.22321429 9.160714286 3.616071429

Male 44.77678571 28.83928571 11.38392857

p value 0.00150635

H04: There is no significant association between age and how long the respondents are availing the service

of the mobile service provider.




Table-13 is a cross table that represents the observed value of chi square test which is conducted to know

the association between age and how long the respondents are availing the service of the mobile service

provider.

Table –13–Cross table for age and how long the respondents are availing the service of the mobile

service provider


Column Labels

Row Labels

less than 2 Years 2-4 Years

More than 4 years

Grand Total

18-20 40 8 5 53

21-23 10 31 9 50

24-30 1 3 5 9

Grand Total 51 42 19 112

Table- 14 depicts the expected values and the p value of chi square test which are conducted to know the

association between age and how long the respondents are availing the service of the mobile service

provider. The p value here is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. So we can

conclude that there is a significant association between age and how long the respondents are availing the

service of the mobile service provider.

Table –14– Chi-square test with p value age and how long the respondents are availing the service of

the mobile service provider


Column Labels

Row Labels less than 2 Years 2-4 Years

More than 4 years

18-20 24.13393 19.875 8.991071

21-23 22.76786 18.75 8.482143

24-30 4.098214 3.375 1.526786

p value 4.42326E-09

H05: There is no significant association between gender and how much expenditure is made by the

customer per month.




Table-15 is a cross table that shows the observed value of chi square test which is conducted to know the

association between gender and how much expenditure customers made per month.

Table –15–Cross table for gender and how much expenditure made per month by the user

monthly expenses on mobile phone

Column Labels

Row Labels

Less than 200 200-300

300-500 500- 1000 Grand Total

Female 13 6 5 3 27

Male 18 38 25 4 85

Grand Total 31 44 30 7 112

Table- 16 represents the expected values and the p value of chi square test which are conducted to know the

association between gender and how much expenditure customers made per month. The p value here is

0.016 which is less than 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. So we can conclude that there is a

significant association between gender and how much expenditure customers made per month.

Table –16–Chi-square test with p value for gender and how much expenditure made per month by

the user

monthly expenses on mobile phone

Column Labels

Row Labels

Less than 200 200-300

300-500 500- 1000

Female 7.473214286 10.60714 7.23214 1.6875

Male 23.52678571 33.39286 22.7679 5.3125

p value 0.016366

CONCLUSION

In India, some of the mobile service providers competing to offer great services to their clients. Government

and private operators are competing at near margin and are trying to offer a couple of VAS to people.

Subsequently the mobile operators ought to make each effort to provide economical and excellent

equipments, less expensive and competitive call tariffs for connectivity at various ranges and custom

designed services to be able to fulfil and delight their customers. The research study indicates that customers

prefer a particular mobile service provider on the idea of call tariffs, network coverage and VAS. It is

concluded from the study that consumers prefer prepaid plans instead of post-paid plans and all most every

customer treat their mobile phone as a necessity. They generally use their mobile phone for their personal

use and for both incoming and outgoing calls as well as internet. The study reveals that JIO is the most

preferred mobile phone service providers among consumers followed by Airtel and VI.

Most of the respondents replied that they are satisfied with the service provided by their mobile service

provider. From the analysis, we can conclude that there is no significant association between gender and age

with type of plans customers choose. There is a significant association between gender and age with how

long the respondents are availing the service of the mobile service provider and also there is a significant

association between gender and how much expenditure customers made per month. Service providers




should create an emotional relationship with the consumer through innovative plans and enhance their

services quality and brand image, better connectivity and goodwill with the consumer because the consumer

always want more from their operators.

REFERENCES

Deoskar, A. (2009), A study of mobile services from customer’s perspective. PhD thesis, available

at http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1997/6/06_abstract.pdf

Menon, S. D. (2014), Customer Perception towards A Public Sector Telecom Company (BSNL) in

Mobile Services International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research, volume 3,

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Suguanthi, M., Shanthi, R. (2017), Customer perception towards service quality in

IndianTelecommunication industry, International journal of business and management invention,

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Gopika, G.G. (2014), Growth and Development of Telecom Sector in India – An overview, IOSR

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DebarunChakraborty, “Customer Satisfaction And Expectation Towards Aircel: A Research

Conducted In West Midnapore”, International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In

Management & Technology, Volume II, January 2013, Pp 114 – 127.

T.N.R.Kavitha&S.DuraiMurugan, “A Study on Customer Satisfaction towards Vodafone Sim Card

Special Reference In Madurai City”, IOSR Journal of Business and Management, Pp 29 – 32.

Lehtinen, J.R., &Lehtinen, U. (1991). Two approaches to service quality dimensions. The Service

Industries Journal, 11(3), 287-303.

Wang, Yonggui, & Lo, Hing Po. (2002). Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Behaviour

Intentions: Evidence from China’s Telecommunication Industry. Info, 4(6), 50-60.

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Sudheesh, S.S, Chand, A., Subraman, A.K (2015), A comparative study on customer satisfaction

towards Airtel & Vodafone with reference to Avadi, Chennai, ZENITH International Journal of

Multidisciplinary Research, vol.5 (6), pp. 74-83.

KalyaniPawan(2015), “An Empirical Study on Reliance JIO Effect, Competitor’s Reaction and

Customer Perception on the JIO’S Pre- Launch Offer”. Journal of Management Engineering and

Information Technology(JMEIT),vol.3,Pp 18-36.

Dr. K. Moorthy1 , K.Selvaraju2 , K.Ayiswarya3(17 th January 2017), A Study On Customer

Behavioral Intention And Satisfaction Towards Internet Service Providers With Special Reference

To Tamil Nadu, International Conference on Science technology & management.


http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1997/6/06_abstract.pdf

consumer perception towards various mobile service providers

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